Patricia Draper (1976) described the environment of the San people in Southern Africa: “The relationship between children and adults is easygoing and unselfconscious. Adults do not believe that children should keep to themselves: be seen but not heard. The organization of work, leisure, and living space is such that there is no reason for confining children or excluding them from certain activities. Everyone lives on the flat surface of the ground; hence there is no need to protect children from falls or from becoming entrapped behind doors. With the exception of spears and poisoned arrows, adult tools do not constitute a hazard to children. Those weapons are simply kept hanging in trees or wedged on top of a hut, safely out of reach. When the men are making spear and arrow points, they do not attempt to exclude children … from the area.”

Authors

• Person: Francine Barone Organization: Human Relations Area Files
  A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Childhood

Sources

• A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Childhood hraf.yale.edu Francine Barone · Human Relations Area Files via serper

Referenced by nodes (1)

• southern Africa location